Tolstoy wrote “Alyósha Gorshok” (literally, “Alyósha-the-Pot”) in 1905. The only mention of the story in his diary is an entry for February 28 of that year: “Have been writing Alyósha. Quite bad. Gave it up.” The story was published posthumously in 1911 with several other works of his late, post-conversion period. Prince Dmitry Mirsky in his pioneering survey, The History of Russian Literature (1949), regarded the story as a masterpiece. “Concentrated into its six pages . . . [it] is one of [Tolstoy’s] most perfect creations, and one of the few which make one forget the bedrock Luciferianism and pride of the author.”